Greener Pastures

Raidcraft - My World of Warcraft Experiences

 

Obviously the whole “World of ____craft” is overused, but that won’t stop me from titling my post that. 

I thought I should post a bit about my WoW experiences because I’ve been referring to it so much in my RIFT rambles. While I’m not currently playing WoW, I must say I still believe that it is the greatest MMO currently out. It has some major flaws, but so does RIFT, EVE, and just about every other MMO out there.

I started playing WoW after it was mentioned by a friend from middle school. I didn’t really do much for the first month or two. I leveled a character to 20, learned that I was a total alt-aholic, did a few instances, and died a lot. I don’t really think I did much, but I do remember leveling my enhancement shaman using a dagger and a shield. Dual wielding didn’t exist for Sham-shams back then, but I managed somehow. I think my first Tauren Shaman made it to level 40-something. Just before I stopped playing for the first time, I manage to scrape together the money for my first mount. 

Quitting WoW was easy. For me, anyway. It just kind of faded out of my life as my friends stopped playing. When they didn’t log on, there wasn’t much point to leveling, PvPing, or anything. I don’t really remember if I played any other MMOs between WoW subscriptions, but I doubt it. Burning Crusade came out while I wasn’t around, but it caught the attention of my friends who, once again, dragged me along with them into the World of Warcraft.

I played on and off during BC, but never on the same server. We would constantly switch servers, starting new characters and changing factions. We must’ve quit at least four or five times. Sometimes it was my idea to restart playing WoW, sometimes it was my friends. All that starting and stopping is all jumbled together into one massive mush in my mind. What really meant something was when I finally hit the level cap of 80 in WotLK. 

Tons of people talk about how easy raiding was in WotLK but, as one of those who never got a LK kill, I really don’t think it was as easy as everyone makes it out to be. On my first run to 80 I played a DK. Yea, my first 80 was a Death Knight. I wanted to tank, and tank I did. As soon as I hit 80 I managed to get an offtank spot in my guild’s only raid group. I did some Naxx and had an absolute blast. I even managed a full clear (which to me seemed significant) and actually felt like I had a place in the guild. I remember arguing with the other DK tank about dual-wield tanking vs two-handed tanking. In fact, many of my best memories of WoW are from the raids I’ve done. Being part of a group of people that don’t take the game too seriously really made a difference. When I wiped the entire raid on KT by iceblocking the Guild Leader, I was reprimanded, but we all laughed about it before the next attempt. However, just before Trial of the Crusader or whatever was released, I had to leave for a few weeks. 

In those few weeks I became severely out geared and my guild had decided to keep the replacement tank instead of gearing me up. Honestly, there wasn’t much reason to play for me after that. I quit yet again. 

Once ICC was released, my friends and I started once more. I leveled my paladin to 80 in mere weeks, excited to get back into the raiding business. I was part of a relatively small guild with two raiding groups and the second one, of which I was a part of, was seriously lacking in the healing department. Good thing I was a healer, right? I was soon joined by another reliable healer and we started doing out ICC progression raids. We wiped a lot. We didn’t have much of a reliable core, missing tanks, dps, and sometimes a healer almost every week. Sometimes we couldn’t even get the second night of raiding done. My friends blamed the guilds incompetence but, while they may have been right, I had grown to like my new guildies. I stuck around anyway. I think overcoming the challenges of ICC without a group of overgeared, hardcore WoW players actually made the experience much better. Eventually, however, WoW faded out of my life once more. 

But that isn’t the end. I returned to my old server with my old paladin to play Cataclysm! I came back with just a week ‘till release. People frantically ran ICC, thinking the LK title would disappear, and everyone else just sat around waiting. My guild hadn’t aged well. A few of the officers had server transfered, the guild leader and a few others moved to a new guild, but we all came back together and reformed the old guild.

As soon as Cata went live I was on, leveling and selling herbs. I managed to be the first on my guild to 85 and one of our officers almost got a realm first for jewelcrafting. Anyway, I started on heroics. Wipefests. All of them. They were brutal, especially on the healers. Despite the challenges, they were fun to complete and, when you actually managed to complete them, they were very rewarding. 

And then we started raiding again. The same issues plagued out newly revived guild. Despite having a large number of geared 85s, we had a terrible showing at raids. We couldn’t even get past a single boss. Obviously Blizzard had increased the difficulty, but I think it got to the point where guilds like mine couldn’t progress at all. At least in ICC our terribad raids could at least get somewhere. To someone who loves to see the content, these losses were crushing. I think the guild really couldn’t handle it either and the people who were really serious about it moved on to more hardcore guilds. 

Yes, we sucked. But, in my opinion, that really shouldn’t have stopped us from going past the first boss. I’m not saying everything in the game should be easy to get. I’m not saying everyone should be able to roflstomp the last boss in every raid. But I am saying there should be raid content, even with worse loot, for those of us who suck.

Anyway, I stopped playing. 

But I’ll be back, sometime.

On another note, this is my longest post. And it also happens to be the most rambly. Yay! 

Black Garden Woes

So yesterday I decided to roll a cleric alt. 

While PvP on my warrior is fun, it really didn’t feel effective. I always felt like we lacked any reliable healers while the Defiants always have a few. I wasn’t about to do the exact same quest areas again either, so I chose to level my new cleric only in PvP Warfronts. 

I quickly learned that the issue really isn’t the lack of healers, although that certainly contributes. I really can’t decide if people just have no idea how to win or if they just don’t care. They almost never go for the fang and, when they do, they just mindless click it expecting to get it. People NEED to AoE the fang. People NEED to try and get it. Doing just one of those results failure and, when the Defiants also megafail, a reset. 

Just a quick rant. It seriously reminds me of Warsong Gulch, except the games can’t go on forever. And I know I’m writing a lot about RIFT, I’ll try and stop. Key word is try.

Because Hunting is Fun

Ah, Monster Hunter. It was one of those games that when I first played it, I hated it, then I picked up weeks later and I loved it. Much like Dwarf Fortress, it has a ridiculous learning curve but high rewards. Taking down each new boss felt awesome, but the number of times I had to kill certain bosses bordered on ridiculous (*cough* Narga *cough*).

I’m not an original PS1 Monster Hunter veteran like all the gamefaqs people say they are, but I’d like to think I’m fairly good. I started off in the PSP’s Monster Hunter Freedom something or rather. I ended up with Unite, but MHF2 and Unite are pretty much the same game. I also played Tri, but I think that game deserves its own post.

The premise of the game is simple. Kill monsters, cut them into little chunks, and make weapons and armor with their scales, teeth, wings, etc. The story is non-existent, but there is some babble about saving the town or some other nonsense. Each time you accept a mission, you’re placed in an area made up of zones connected by loading screens and directed to complete said mission. Some of the early ones are easy gathering ones, killing herbivores, or the like, but as you progress in the game, the vast majority of them become a single target hunt. The monsters themselves are extremely well made and the visuals hold up well on the PSP. 

There are plenty on monsters and many of those have variations that are stronger, faster, have new attacks, and look cooler. While some abilities seem a little recycled, most monsters have unique attacks that set them apart. Learning each monsters attack patterns is important and exploiting the enemies weaknesses is one of the biggest parts of a successful hunt. 

The crafting system offers plenty of items for you to create with your little monster bits. Almost every monster in the game has two armor sets and a few weapons. One of my main issues with Monster Hunter is the obscene amount of rare materials they make you obtain. Sometimes this could be considered good, but when you really need that last heavenly scale and you’ve killed Rath for the 9001st time, it can get kind of annoying. Endless boss grinding for your armor becomes part of the game and you just kind of have to accept it. Then again, people master the bosses doing ridiculous things. Landing a full greatsword charge on a charging Tigrex isn’t something most players can do.

One serious drawback of the PSP versions is the inability to play online without a PS3 or a certain wireless adapter for your computer. It does, however, support ad-hoc play, which was sufficient for me. The multiplayer is a blast and definitely shouldn’t be missed; hunting a massive wyvern with three friends is one of the greatest features.

I feel like there should be more in this, but maybe its because I didn’t get to address Tri. Or any of the weapons. Or the farm. But those can wait ‘till next time.

Looking For Groups

As I was PMing some guy in general chat in RIFT about an instance group he was forming, I realized RIFT has no LFG system. It certainly reminded me of WoW before the LFG/teleports came into effect and the problems they cause. Sure, they’re convenient. Sure, they’re faster. But, in my opinion, they negatively impact the community of the game. 

I’m sure people know about the whole “anonymity makes people assholes” thing and this definitely occurs all over the internet, but in MMOs it’s slightly different. If you piss someone off ingame, they can do something about it. Call you out on your server as a ninja, grief you back, or whatever they can think of. People you screw with play in the same world as you. The cross server LFG system just ensures that the people you screw won’t ever see you again. It reminds of a heroic I ran from just after Cata was released. An agi epic cloak dropped, but it was taken from our rogue by a warrior. His reasoning was that he “wasn’t stupid enough to trust that the rogue would use it.” so, by taking it, he was preventing a ninja. I don’t think I’ll ever see him again, but I still remember what a douchebag move that was. Good thing the queue times improved dramatically, because the groups didn’t.

I know I keep referring to WoW, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to again. When an LFG system teleports you, it eliminates the need for you to actually know where the instance is. WoW sort of fixed this by requiring you to discover them, but I still ran into people who had no idea how to get back inside after a wipe. 

I was actually a little sad to hear RIFT is getting an LFG system, but at least there won’t be people asking for tanks in the middle of an invasion. Having help finding a group for an instance is good and all, but there has to be some balance between that and clicking a button, then randomly finding yourself in a dungeon with 4 other people. 

From Portals to Rifts

Thanks to my terrible internet connection (really, thanks to it) I got to finish Portal 2 before Rift even finished downloading. But now that it’s done and I’ve played a decent amount, I thought I should do a follow-up to my original Rift post.

I really like the soul system, but I’m starting to realize that I’m just going to end up using 2 classes, with a third one completely neglected. I want to experiment with it more, but it bothers me when a full tree isn’t filled to the top. Or when a talent is 3/5 or some silly fraction. I guess it’s another thing that I’ll need to get over to enjoy it fully. The actual act of getting new souls is much easier than I thought it would be. In fact, I didn’t even realize I had finished the quest for the Reaver soul until a day later. 

The rifts are amazing, but can sometimes be extremely annoying. As a level 14, I could solo most rifts as long as I was careful, which was fine. My main problems were when invasion forces hit my questing camps. For those who don’t know, when an invasion force kills this glowing stone thing in the outposts they gain control of it until a player killed the stone and the leader of the invasion force. During normal playing hours I’m sure this isn’t such a huge issue because players usually defend against such attacks, however at 3 am that duty falls upon me and some rogue named “Fuffles”. Another problem I’ve had soloing rifts were the bonus waves. When you’re in a group, these waves would be an extra challenge. On your own, however, they become almost impossible, especially when an elite mob spawns. I actually found myself waiting out the bonus wave timers so that they wouldn’t occur and the rift would despawn.

I made a female Elf warrior who specializes in elemental attacks. I’ve always been a fan of the badass female fighters (think Tifa/Lightning) but I’ve never actually played a warrior for any length of time in an MMO, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity. I took weaponsmithing, even though one of my friends already has it. It fits better with my character than artificer, flower picker, or whatever other pansy tradeskills mages take. 

Some of the armor makes my character looks like a whore. Not cool. I almost didn’t want to use them because of that, but the +3 strength was just too enticing. I’ll just have to look for an upgrade faster. If I get a chance I’ll put a picture of my character in her ridiculous armor.

And now I realize I need to write something about Final Fantasy.

Oh, and the animations still suck major, major balls.

Thinking in Portals

So I’ve gotten to play quite a bit of Portal 2 over the last two days and I’m really glad to see they didn’t screw up the squeal to an amazing game. I loved the original Portal with its silly dialog and mind-bending puzzles. Portal 2 definitely brings back a similar experience with a more defined storyline and grittier environments.

While I can’t say the story itself is really gripping, the characters are interesting and the script is still hilarious. A slew of new mechanics were introduced at a good pace and I rarely felt like I was repeating the same thing over and over. I spent equal time running around the behind-the-scenes areas as jumping through portals in the white walled testing rooms. However moving through the Aperture science facilities does get a bit tedious and, more than once, I found myself rotating around madly to find the one spot I could open a portal.

 I pretty much knew what I was getting into when I started up Portal 2 and I certainly wasn’t let down. Maybe I can get into some co-op games soon because I’m really excited to see how 4 portals could be used.

Megashort, but I really don’t have a whole lot to say. And I tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible.

The Capybara Vomits

Smells like Dwarf Fortress.

As one of the games that I’ve totally fallen in love with, Dwarf Fortress deserves at least one paragraph of praise. Or two. Maybe three. I’ll stop at four, I promise…

I don’t think I would have ever even heard of the game if it hadn’t been for Minecraft and a friend of mine. Eli, the aforementioned friend, talked about Dwarf Fortress for a long time while we played other games. “Losing is fun!” and “It’s super complex!” were a few of the phrases he used and that was enough for me to give a little look. I was instantly turned off by the ASCII gaphics and the odd controls. Even with a graphical tileset, the game looked weak. I dismissed it and moved on. Weeks later, I had my wisdom teeth out. Bed-ridden, uncomfortable, and lacking a stable internet connection, I decided to try Dwarf Fortress again. After hours of sifting through tutorials and videos, I finally got my first fortress running and, damn, it was gratifying.

The enjoyment value someone gets out of Dwarf Fortress is largely in the hands of the person playing it. Like Minecraft, there isn’t really an ending. You never win. In fact, you can only lose. The premise sounds ridiculous, but the line “losing is fun” really becomes true. Most of the fighting is written out in combat logs that you can read. The actual visuals for the fighting are nothing more than two squares dancing around each other, but the combat logs are so detailed it really doesn’t matter. Weapon attacks can knock out teeth, bruise muscles, and break bones.

Before I go forward, I think I should explain a little about the game itself. The game is, as one of a my friends put it, a large-scale game of the Sims. I think its a little different, but I can see the similarities. When you start the game, you can have a world procedurally generated for you based on a few different parameters. The world includes mountains, hills, civilizations, hidden monsters, and years of history. Right off the bat your can go into the legends mode and check out the historical figures and sites of your new world. The depth is staggering. Once you have the world, you get to pick a location to settle and, from there, you try and survive with your group of hearty dwarves. Food, water, beds, and the like are all required by your dwarves and helping them help themselves is pretty much your job. You don’t get to control each dwarf in the traditional sense. Instead, you get to designate jobs to be completed. Such jobs can range from digging a rock tile to making steel buckets. 

Now that I’ve said that, I don’t have much to move forward to. I’ll definitely post some screenshots and stuff later, though. For science. Perhaps I have too much Portal 2 on the mind.